


To Protect A Spider

by CountDorkula42



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Abuse of Power, Evil Fury, Panic Attacks, Self Harm, brief appearance of Dum- E, more tags time be added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25391080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CountDorkula42/pseuds/CountDorkula42
Summary: Natasha Romanov was fearless. Usually.So why was she bursting into Tony’s lab, terrified?Why was she begging Tony to stab her?Why was she so afraid of going on a mission?And why was Fury so determined to make her?
Relationships: Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning- attempted self harm, kinda   
> More in depth warnings at the end

Metallica was blasting in Tony’s lab as he worked on repairing his suit after the last battle. Giant orange monsters with the consistency of Jello had attacked the city, and whatever they were made of really wasn’t good for his armor. 

I bet it didn’t taste good either, Tony thought, smirking at the memory of Clint sputtering furiously after getting the goo in his mouth. It wasn’t toxic, so he was fine, although Clint had whined about his tongue being numb for hours. 

“Sir,” Jarvis says, abruptly shutting off the music, “Miss Romanoff is requesting entry into the lab.”

“Tell Mother Russia I’ll be about five more minutes, J,” Tony yelled while he chased Dum-E around, trying to retrieve his socket wrench. He was so going to reprogram him. 

“I’m sorry, sir, but she is rather insistent. She also seems to be holding a rather large dagger”, informs Jarvis, sounding concerned.

That stopped Tony in his tracks. While it wasn’t unusual for the black widow to have a gun or two on her person, she normally conceals them (though whether that was due to polite discretion or years of being a spy, he wasn’t sure).

“Let her in,” Tony orders, disquieted. 

The doors slid open and Natasha came barreling through, stumbling to a stop in front of him. Tony straightened, shocked, because Natasha never stumbled. “Are you okay? Do you n-“

“I need you to stab me” Natasha interupts, attempting to regain her composure. It didn’t work as well as she thought, because he still saw the fear in her eyes. 

“What? No!! Why would I-“ 

Natasha once again cut him off, this time by shoving the handle of a large dagger into his hand. “I need you to stab me. Please,” She repeated with a sense of urgency, her voice trembling.

“Nat,” Tony says, placing his empty hand firm on her shoulders, “You need to tell me what’s going on”. 

“Please!” Natasha begged, desperate. “I can’t go on this mission. I need a reason, an injury. We’ll tell him it’s was a training accident. Hurry, he’ll be here soon.” 

“What mission? Nat, i'm not stabbing you. Tell me what’s going on- “ 

“Sir, it appears Director Fury is in the elevator. He is on his way to see you.” Jarvis interjects. 

“No!” Natasha shrieks, borderline histeric. Tony barely took a second to reflect on the fact that this was the same woman who was trained from a toddler to hide her emotions. Whatever this was, it was bad. 

“It’s okay,” Tony soothed immediately, “I’ll make him leave. Here, stay in there.”

He leads her to a metal door, which he opened to reveal a bathroom. “Get in, I’ll handle it. It’s okay.” 

Once Natasha steps into the small room, the door automatically slides shut. 

Merely seconds later, Nicholas J. Fury calmly walks through the door to the lab, exuding confidence.

“Where is Romanoff?” He demands, his voice cool, but his flagitious intentions were betrayed by the menacing glint in his eye. 

“The infirmary.”, Tony replied, trying to act casual. “She was injured in a training accident.”

“See, that’s the thing, Stark,”, Fury replied. “I don’t believe you.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony talks to Fury, then gets some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings at end

“What do you mean?” Asked Tony, leaning back on his desk, pretending to be calm. Internally, he was panicking. He had no idea what kind of mission Fury wanted Natash to do, but anything that made her react like that couldn’t be good. She normally seemed so strong, so impervious to everything. To see her falling apart, sobbing in terror? It had rattled him. Tony promised himself he would do all he could to protect her from Fury.

Tony grabbed a container of blueberries from under his desk and popped one in his mouth, his thoughts racing. “Blueberry?” he offered, trying to calm his nerves, but the director ignored him.

“I mean,” Fury took a step closer to Tony, who held his ground and didn’t flinch, eating another berry. “Agent Romanoff would have reported being injured. Protocol.” 

“Well, Patchy, when Natasha was injured, she passed out. Hasn’t regained consciousness. Can’t file a report if you’re unconscious.” Tony was used to coming up with lies on the spot. Owning a company came with board meetings, galas, and press conferences, all of which required some diplomacy. He held a straight facing, maintaining his normal, flippant demeanor.

Fury’s face was hard, his expression unchanged. “I see.” He then broke eye contact for the first time since the conversation began, looking around the room, before turning his gaze back to Tony, who almost sighed in relief. “Tell Agent Romanoff to report for duty the moment she is cleared”. 

“Right. Anything else? I’m kinda busy here,” Tony says, gesturing toward the suit he was repairing. 

“I’m sure you are,” says Fury, sounding like he didn’t believe a word Tony was saying. 

Fury stalked away, and the moment the doors closed behind him, Tony bolted to Natasha’s hiding spot.

The metal door of the bathroom opened to reveal Natasha, standing perfectly still, her nonchalant expression a far cry from the sheer terror she was exhibiting earlier.   
Tony marveled at how he never would have known something was amiss had she not been pleading with him to stab her mere moments ago.   
Tony had just opened his mouth to talk, perhaps to comfort her, when Natasha stepped past him and made to exit the lab. 

“Nat, wait!” Tony called, hurriedly trying to reach her. 

“What?” She snapped, whipping around to face him. “I apologize for the inconvenience, I overreacted. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend to-“

“What? No!” Tony exclaimed, appalled. “Jesus, Nat, don’t apologize. We need to talk about what just happened”.

“No. There is nothing to talk about,”Natasha claimed in a clipped voice, straining to maintain her composure. “Look,” She pursed her lips, trying to figure out how to explain her erratic behavior. “I overreacted. It’s fine”. 

“It’s not fine!” Tony insisted, panicked. He needed to help her. Something was wrong, and he was going to fix it. Frustrated he began to yell “Nat, you asked me to stab you! That’s a pretty big deal-”

He raised his hand to run it through his hair, and Natasha flinched, almost imperceptibly. Immediately, Tony brought his hand back down, and lowered his voice.  
“Nat,” he said softly, “let me help you.”

“You can’t!” She exploded, her voice echoing the indescribable mix of pain, fury and hopelessness that could only come from someone so very scared.

“No one can help me”, Natasha started trembling, all her emotions painted across her face. “I have to go on the mission, it's my job,” she said, trying to convince herself as well as Tony.  
She started swaying, looking ready to pass out, so he grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her.   
“Natasha,” he said, making eye contact. “What is the mission?” Tony braced himself, so many horrible scenarios flying through his head. He knew it was going to be worse than he could ever imagine. Natasha looked terrified earlier, but this was worse. She just seemed broken.

Natasha broke eye contact, looking down. “It should bother me this much. I mean, i've done it before. трахаться, i shouldn't be- “

“Hey,” Tony interrupted gently,attempting to give her a reassuring smile. “It's okay,”. Worried she was going to faint, Tony guided Natasha over to a coffee stained couch and they sat in tense silence for a moment, until she took a shaky breath and started to speak.

“It's a routine mission for me. I had to do it all the time before I joined the Avengers. I guess I just thought,” Her voice broke, and a tear fell down her face., “I thought I wouldn’t have to do it anymore”.

“Do what?” Tony asked urgently, getting even more worried.

Natasha sighed, hurriedly wiping away the tears that were now cascading down her face.   
“I am the black widow, It’s my job. There was a, um, a mob boss. My assignment is to… is to isolate the target. Get him alone,” She wrapped her arms around herself and hung her head. Tony felt sick, as he started to understand where this was going. “My orders are to seduce him. I am posing as a prostitute. I’ve done it before. I need to get his attention, let him take me to the hotel, and then I have to,” Natasha hesitated, then she took another deep breath, and this time she whispered, “My orders are to have sex with him”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discussion of forced prostitution- Natasha explains SHIELD is making her sleep with targets  
> Cussing- Natasha says one curse word in Russian

**Author's Note:**

> Natasha asks Tony to stab her with a knife so she won’t have to go on a mission, but he won’t.


End file.
